Tom Rademacher: After lifetime of illiteracy, Ionia County man authors book

One of the most heart-breaking sagas of hope you might ever embrace is just a few hundred words long, features crayoned pictures for art, and was penned by a 55-year-old man who at one point in his life counted as his only friend a loyal little dog named Skipper.

It’s the story of a man who could not read.

His name is Howard Tompkins, and he is a reminder for everyone who takes words for granted that some among us found a dark way to advance without the alphabet, and suffered a thousand indignities because of it.

Now, a half-century later, Howard has surfaced on behalf of the Ionia County Literacy Council (ICLC), and his book should be required reading for every elementary school educator, so that not even one more Howard escapes us.

“I fought with this for so many years,” Howard told me. “It hurt so deeply inside. So I hid under a rock. You hide from people.”

Howard, who’s called Ionia County home his entire life, bailed school in the eighth grade. It was years earlier, though, that he realized he was in jeopardy.

“They didn’t know what to do with me,” he said of teachers. “At one point, they put me in a special ed class, but that was even worse.”

In the book he wrote, entitled “Howard’s Dream,” he relates how school was fun at first, but not when he fell behind, and “Kids in school picked on me every day. … The name-calling got to be too much.”

When the world started to cave in, “I would get off the bus and run to the creek and sit on a rock and cry my eyes out,” Howard writes.

That’s when Skipper would join him, and “sit on the rock with me and watch as the water passed by.

“When he shook off the water and got me all wet I would forget about my troubles reading and the kids who were mean to me.

“The pain would go away for one more day.”

Eventually, Howard ventured into the world without the ability to read, a young teen who couldn’t make out a road map, a menu, a postcard.

As a teen, he married and had a son who did go on to read, and well. He built his own home in Lyons, not from blueprints that would have required reading, but “from in my head.” He learned how to weld; he became handy with tools.

Howard works now in maintenance for Cargill Kitchen Solutions of Lake Odessa, and is enrolled in literacy classes with volunteer tutor Marilyn Peckins, a retired secretary who was looking for a way to enrich her life and that of others.

In her words, Howard “didn’t read well at all when we started” some two years ago. But he now handles a newspaper, and he’s no longer terrified of entering a restaurant by himself. His confidence is at an all-time high, so much so that he’s summoned the gumption to read to elementary school classes in the Ionia area.

The ILIC printed 4,000 copies of “Howard’s Dream,” and they’re being distributed to kids in area schools.

Older men and women, however – some of them illiterate – are discovering the book as well. And it’s subtly changing lives.

At a classroom in Clarksville, Howard was reading to kids when a little girl blurted out “My mother can’t read, either – can you help her?”

One gentleman in the Ionia area has decided to learn how to read, but won’t meet his tutor in a library or any other public venue. It’s done in secret. But it’s being done.

“So many stories, and so much shame,” says Cindy Talcott, a long-time teacher and now executive director of the ICLC. “Instead of getting help, they retreat.

“Howard wanted to share his story so others would seek help, and hopefully, so others wouldn’t make fun of those who have difficulty reading.”

Howard shared with me that the tears didn’t stop for a long time, that he would well up with frustration long after Skipper died and couldn’t comfort him anymore.

“It happened a lot.”

Nobody should have to live like that. Especially when help is just a call or click away.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Most counties in Michigan are aligned with a literary council, and are located via phone directories and the Internet. They’re typically looking for both non-readers, and tutors to guide them. To explore ordering copies of “Howard’s Dream,” contact the Ionia County Literary Council by phoning (616) 527-1360 ext. 116; or e-mail: ionialiteracy@gmail.com.